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Problem with refurbished T400

I have recently bought a T400 from ebay for 500 USD (less than 350 euros)...

It seems like a sweet deal but it seems there are some issues with those refurbished units...

Allow me to explain.

Frist the puter didn't came with restore DVDs and the HDD was blank...

there is Vista Business OEMAct sticker from Lenovo Singapore but how can I know if it's a 32 bits or a 64 bits one?

For now i have installed a Windows Vista some guys from MS gave me, you know those with some orange sticker promo copies to make sure you don't resell them . Anyway I have installed Vista 64 bits Ultimate.

Frist weird thing.

THE PUTER DOESNT HAVE A STICKER WITH MODEL TYPE AND SN ... HOW WEIRD IS THAT.

System Update 3.14 did detect the puter as PC25340 , and said there was nothing to update, when obviously there was as i didn't install any tools : )

I tried to install manually the lenovo tools , BUT some tools require to enter the model type... I don't have any type! : (

the type is like XXXX-XXX ... from the web i could find some model types : ie : 6473 , 7417, 6475 etc ... there should also be some letters but i don't know what those letters should be like on a previous model i had the infamous "CTO".

I updated the BIOS to 3.01 which seems the latest and i found out the following :
system unit SN : PC253407091234
Bios 3.01
Embedded 1.03
System board SN : (blank field)

Why is that field blank? what is the format of this field for you guys with a T400 how many digits or number is it?

With the BIOS disc i also found out you can edit the model number in my case it's PC25340 , perhaps this been tempered with and i should restore it to something else so thinkvantage would properly detect my unit.

so my questions are :
anyone ever seen a refurbished unit with the sticker removed?
How can i tell if the Vista licence is 64 bits or 32 bits?
How can i get thinkvantage to detect my unit properly?
Should i change the PC25340 so something else like let's say 1234-ABC (some legit model number) perhaps the bios would properly detect it.
(When you guys with T400 run system update what model does it dectect for you? like 1234-ABC?)

A true refurbished model would have the tag of XXXX-CTR. If I were you I would consider sending it back. Something isn't right with it, something was edited (perhaps it had a bios password and the seller hacked it and resold it???). Either way I would not be comfortable with that and would want a genuine new or refurb unit.

i confirm i'm not confortable with it, that's why i'm eager to understand.
there is no return policy however and so i need to deal with it and anyway shipping it back to the US would cost me almost the amount i paid for it : )

For now i'm trying to understand and putting the pieces back together...

it's like if it was a non working unit which had some non lenovo remplaced parts fit in... as it doesn't get detected. it's really weird stuff.

The only part of your post I can answer is that it doesn't matter what architecture the license key is for, 32 bit or 64 bit, the license is valid for both. It is up to you to decide which version to run. The catch is that you will need to find out which version of Vista(ex: Home Basic, Home premium, Business, etc) the license key matches, as the license key on the bottom of the machine is tied to this. I agree with StealthTH, something is way off if the machine doesn't have a product and serial number on the bottom.

I can't speak for Lenovo, but I had an HP Business computer with a hairline crack in the base. They came out (onsite warranty) and replaced the base. The new base was stickerless. They left the original base with me, but that did not appease me. Yet, when I complained all they said they could do was to print basic stickers (not OEM ones that were on there to begin with) and I could put them on. I did this and they fell off shortly afterward. I actually had a few other issues with the laptop during the warranty, and they never gave me any trouble about it not having a fixed serial number or anything. Just thought you might want to know....

The seller change the motherboard on your T400 and forgot to update the previous system board serial number and model number by doing the IBM maintenance disk. i had a similar exact problem when i change my T61 motherboard due to Nvidia GPU failure. you can't update from Lenovo system update because Lenovo is looking on the model number of your Thinkpad.. go ask around this forum and ask on IBM maintenace disk i think it s version 1.74 but not sure if it will work on your T400. You also need to run it on a usb floppy drive to update the serial number, model number and so on.